The Pain Inside
by Fennel
Summary: Buffy's back from her summer away from Sunnydale. Hidden personal problems explode when a man with an equally painful past comes into town. UPDATE: Chapter 3 added, temporarily finished.
1. Introductions All Around

None of the characters portrayed in this story belong to me at all (not even a little bit, but it would be nice if they did...I'm pretty sure I have a birthday coming up!).  
  
***********  
  
Buffy Summers bounced into the gloomy library, a black bag swinging wildly from her shoulder, the very picture of teen exuberance.  
  
"Giles?" she called walking over to the checkout desk, not that she'd ever actually seen anyone check out books. She spotted the librarian standing behind the desk, leafing absently through a book.  
  
"Hey Giles!" she repeated a bit louder, finally getting his attention. "Guess what we just slayed some major demon as-" just then she noticed the other man sitting behind Giles, hidden by the deep shadows that filled the library. Her mouth worked frantically for a moment, before blurting out, "Assignments!" She then put on an extremely casual tone of voice, "Yup, those assignments were so hard they were demonic. And we slayed them, uhh, we did good, we're all getting A's?" Her voice sounded nervous, and more than slightly desperate.  
  
Giles regarded his young protegee with something very close to amusement, "Buffy, it's alright, he knows; this is a friend of mine, Duncan MacLeod," he gestured towards the man sitting in the corner, regarding the whole proceedings with interest.  
  
Buffy tilted her head to one side regarding the stranger. His dark hair was pulled back from a very serious looking face. Something about him made her cautious. Just then the library door swung open again, admitting a petite redhead.  
  
"Hey Giles!" she called out happily, making her way over to the desk. She came to stand by the desk, halting what she was about to say when she saw the stranger.  
  
"Willow," Giles said, "this is a friend of mine, Duncan MacLeod."  
  
"- and he's carrying a sword!" Buffy put in perkily, stopping her hawk-eyed evaluation of the young man.  
  
"Really?" Willow raised one eyebrow, noticing the man shift uncomfortably in his seat.  
  
The conversation paused for a moment as Oz came in through the library doors, moving immediately over to Willow, putting an arm around her waist.  
  
"Hey, who's the new guy?" he asked, gesturing with his free hand towards Duncan.  
  
"Duncan MacLeod," Willow supplied.  
  
"He's carrying a sword," Buffy added.  
  
Oz paused, giving the man a hard look, then sniffed for a moment.  
  
"He's also not human," Oz declared, stoic as always, looking slightly pleased at the accuracy of his werewolf senses.  
  
Giles groaned and took off his glasses, rubbing his forehead. Duncan MacLeod stood up, eyes flicking towards his old friend.  
  
The library doors banged open a fourth time, admitting a dark haired youth, carrying a cardboard box. Xander joined the lineup next to his friends, his normally oblivious senses noticing that something was going on. It was somewhat of an odd sight, the four high-school students lined up on one side of the desk and Duncan and Giles on the other.  
  
"Hey, what's up?" Xander asked, gesturing towards the stranger.  
  
Before Giles could say anything Buffy spoke, "His name's Duncan MacLeod -"  
  
"- he's carrying a sword -" Oz interrupted.  
  
"- and he's not human," Willow finished.  
  
Four pairs of eyes turned to look at the stranger, before Xander spoke, "Cool. Now who wants post-slayage donuts?"  
  
*******  
  
  
  
It took a few minutes and several introductions, but shortly, everyone was sitting around the library table. Buffy, who was sitting cross-legged on the table, was regarding Duncan with predator eyes. He was taller than she, by more than a foot, and his broad shoulders and muscled physique spoke of fighting experience.  
  
Giles cleared his throat, "Duncan is an ... um ... old friend of mine. We met while I was still training to be a Watcher. He has had a run in with a demon recently. Knowing what kind of work I am in he contacted me, and I invited him to visit."  
  
"Rupert assured me that coming here would provide me with ample opportunities to increase my knowledge of demons," Duncan's softly accented voice held a bit of humour, as well as something darker, something hidden.  
  
"Oh, demons! I almost forgot!" Buffy stopped her evaluation of Duncan and turned to Giles. "It's dead!" she said, summing up their fight.  
  
"Oh, well, good," Giles replied haltingly.  
  
"It wasn't the demon we thought it was," Willow put in.  
  
"Yup, Giles, our research guy didn't come through this time," Xander said, more than slightly mockingly, "instead of little blue demons we get big green demon. And I mean BIG. But we killed him."  
  
"What do you mean we?" Buffy asked, before reaching into her bag to pull out a heavy gold chain set with a large medallion. Everyone cringed and pulled away when she placed it on the table, largely because it was covered in a rather pungent green slime. "Now this," she indicated the smelly chain with one finger, "was recovered after all the fighting was all over, everything else dissolved into that goo."  
  
"Interesting, in a pungent sort of way," Giles said, pushing his chair a few feet backwards, "ah, Buffy, if you wouldn't mind..." Buffy, needing no further hint, put the medallion away. "Er Willow I think Knorr's Lexicon of Demon's would be the best place to start looking for whatever this was."  
  
"I'm on it, Research Girl, that's who I am."  
  
"And a damn good one too!" Buffy said, bolstering her best friend's self esteem.  
  
With Oz in tow - "To provide moral support." - Willow headed off into the stacks and Xander went to catalogue the medallion. Buffy, left sitting with the two men waited expectantly, she didn't have long to wait.  
  
Giles cleared his throat, "Um, Buffy. I know that this isn't something you usually do, but if you wouldn't mind, could you teach Duncan how to slay the undead? It's kind of beginner steps towards full fledged demons."  
  
Buffy paused, thoughtful. Teaching someone how to slay was serious. It could give the unwary a false sense of security. Also, teaching someone her techniques, her patrol routines (as few as she tried to keep) was dangerous, and that information in the wrong hands could be deadly. Giles knew what he was asking her to do. Buffy licked her lips then asked the only question she could ask, "Do you trust him?"  
  
Giles' simple affirmative was enough for her. Buffy hopped off the table and gestured to Duncan, "Come on then, we still have time left until dawn." She collected several stakes from the extra stash she always kept handy, and said a quick good bye to Oz and Willow, where they were immersed in piles of demonology books.  
  
*******  
  
Buffy and Duncan walked in silence towards the cemetery. "So," Buffy said, deciding to make an attempt at casual conversation, "Been in Sunnydale long?"  
  
"I just got in yesterday."  
  
Buffy noticed his eyes never stopped scanning the darkness on either side of them, whatever this man was - Giles hadn't been much for details - he was used to hunting, or being hunted.  
  
Deciding personal conversation wasn't going to go anywhere, Buffy tried another tactic, "How much do you know about vampires?"  
  
"Not much," a corner of Duncan's mouth quirked upwards in what might have been amusement, "and I must say that what little I do know comes from old movies."  
  
"Hmm," Buffy paused for a moment, considering, "that information would be sketchy at best. Here's how you kill them: stake to the heart, or beheading - your fancy sword could come in handy there." She added the part about the sword just to remind him she knew he wasn't exactly Joe Average. "We're almost at the cemetery, let me take the first few then we'll see how you do." Her eyes challenged him to disagree, to say she was too small, too weak, too female. However, Duncan merely nodded, continuing to walk beside her with silent grace.  
  
When they reached the cemetery, Buffy motioned for Duncan to fall back. And he did, staying concealed within a stand of trees, while she moved ahead into open territory. Duncan didn't have to wait long to get his first glimpse of a vampire. Buffy had barely made it to the centre of the clearing when she stopped, turned slightly, and called out, "Alright, listen. I know it's hard for you to understand, being all newly made, and all. But I can hear you coming, you're not very quiet."  
  
The bush she had been addressing was torn to pieces, as a very dirty vampire, apparently enraged by the Slayer's condescending tone, attacked with inhuman speed and fury. But Buffy was faster. The Slayer neatly dodged the vampire's charge, adding a little extra force to it's momentum to send the creature headfirst into a tree. "You really need to work on your approach," she chided gently. The vampire charged again, apparently not having learned much from it's previous attempt, and this time ended up a pile of dust at Buffy's feet.  
  
Buffy smiled down at the ash pile, then turned back to Duncan, grinning, "Next time you can try."  
  
**********  
  
Patrol went quickly. Duncan was a natural. The big sword of his turned out to be a handy vampire slaying weapon, much as Buffy had predicted. Although it sort of creeped her out how naturally he beheaded the vampires. She wondered if she really wanted to know what he normally did with the sword. Once they were finished reducing Sunnydale's vampire population Buffy left Duncan at the library so he could meet up with Giles again, then headed home.  
  
Buffy slipped into her own house, up the stairs and past the bedroom where her mother still lay awake (pretending not to be up listening for her demon- slaying daughter), and moved quietly into her bedroom. While entirely exhausted Buffy knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. After spending endless nights lying in bed staring blankly at the ceiling, while images of the lover she couldn't save replayed themselves endlessly in her head, she had learned that sleep wasn't an option. So, the Slayer went to her window, and sat, staring blankly until the sun began to colour the sky. And still the images ran through her head.  
  
There were disadvantages to being the Slayer.  
  
**********  
  
Duncan lay in bed staring blankly at the ceiling of Rupert's living room. Vampires were real. He'd known that in theory. But it was quite another matter to see one, to fight one, or to kill one. The knowledge that demons were very real had been thrust on him quite suddenly. And so he'd believed in them. He'd had to after all that had happened. But seeing them, that was so very different.  
  
But that wasn't really what was keeping him awake, that was something he couldn't deny. There were memories, memories that just wouldn't go away. Neither alcohol, exhaustion or sleep would stop the memories of the friend he had lost from haunting him. He was too old, there were too many memories, too many lost friends. Too many people dead because of his actions. Sometimes Duncan wondered if eternal life was worth it, if you had to live with eternal pain.  
  
There were disadvantages to being Immortal.  
  
*********** 


	2. Guess Who's Having a Breakdown?

Disclaimer in Chapter 1  
  
***********  
  
The next few weeks resembled what passed for normal, in the life of the Slayer. Buffy went to school, trained with Giles and patrolled with Duncan. Buffy slept little, and what little she did get tended to be in history class; the teacher's droning voice had a tendency to put both she and Xander asleep, much to Willow's disappointment. Buffy also found her day haunted by visions of Angel. She knew he wasn't really there, but she would see him out of the corner of her eye, in the most improbable of places: at the mall in the women's department, at the beach in the middle of the day, or outside of her window, just as the sun was coming up. He was never really there, but the hallucinations were taking their toll. Buffy's unruly state of mind, combined with Duncan's own rather mysterious personal problems, could probably be blamed for what happened in the library that day.  
  
Duncan entered the high school a little before eight in the evening. As per usual, the entire school was deserted, but for the library, where Buffy was training with Giles. Poor, abused Giles was padded to within an inch of his life, as he valiantly attempted to defend himself against the talented Slayer. His attempts seemed futile. Buffy, a study in deadly grace, whirled high, then low, catching her bemused Watcher behind the knees, with the staff she wielded; before dumping him unceremoniously onto the ground. Giles lay on the ground for a moment, before blinking nearsightedly at the hand Buffy offered him. With her assistance the misused Watcher managed to regain his feet. Turning, he spotted Duncan at the door.  
  
"Duncan, I ... um ... ow ... why don't you train with Buffy. I think I'll ... ow ... um ... go get some ice."  
  
As Giles limped painfully towards the door, Duncan turned to Buffy, "You should really be more careful with him, he's not as strong as you are."  
  
Buffy's uncertain temper flared at his tone, "Giles can take care of himself," she spat. Then turned on her heel, heading over to the weapons cage, to return the staves to their rightful places.  
  
Clenching his teeth, Duncan forced himself not to reach out and smack her. He'd found himself quicker to anger lately, and that scared him. Buffy flung the staves into their rightful places and stomped past Duncan towards where her bag lay on the library table. Duncan forced himself to unclench his teeth and tried an attempt at polite conversation; despite the large amount of time they had spent patrolling together over the last few weeks, neither of them really knew each other well. The conversations tended to be limited to discussions of demon weaknesses and short, to the point phrases: "duck", "where's the vampire?" and "you brought the stakes? I thought I was supposed to bring the stakes?". So, he loosened his jaw, and managed to squeeze out, "Where's everybody else tonight?" in what he hoped was a friendly tone.  
  
Buffy looked back at him over her shoulder uncertainly, before replying. "Giles got wind of some prophesy, possibly apocalyptic-y." She frowned at her grammar a moment before continuing, "Anyways, Giles thought he had some book at his house, so Cordelia offered to go get it, but said she wasn't driving alone, Willow offered to go, and Oz decided go with too, because Willow was going, and then somehow Xander ended up going too, and no one's really sure how." The Slayer ended the sentence with a weary look that was becoming all too common.  
  
Duncan felt his irritation rising again, "Don't you think you should have told me about the prophecy? Doesn't the end of the world sound important to you?"  
  
Buffy glared up at him, "I'm sorry, did you suddenly become the Slayer? Did someone put you in charge of saving the universe? Cuz if they did then I wish someone had sent me the memo, I could do with a vacation in Aruba right about now."  
  
With that parting jab, she swished past Duncan, clearly intending to leave the library. Duncan muttered to himself under his breath, Giles wouldn't be happy if he chased off his protegee. "Wait," Duncan called, relieved when she stopped on the threshold. "Giles wanted us to practice together."  
  
"I don't think that's such a good idea right now."  
  
Buffy was probably right, but something in her tone, the eerie indifference to which she'd approached so many things, or the faintly contemptuous tone that said he really didn't want to fight her, made him throw out the next comment, "Afraid?" There it was, the Point of No Return, hanging in the air, dependent on a single word.  
  
Almost immediately Duncan wished he could take back what he'd just said. But Buffy's eyes flashed with anger, and she dropped her bag to the floor with a thump, "Fine," she snarled, "let's go."  
  
Duncan went to the weapon's cage, anger lending speed to his stride. Immediately his eyes lit upon the perfect weapon, the one weapon she was sure she couldn't beat him in, despite her supernatural origins. Knowing, even while he grabbed a weapon for him, and one for Buffy, that what we was doing was supremely stupid, there was no way to stop this fight.  
  
Buffy glared at Duncan's back. She should just walk away from this right now. It was the smart thing to do. But he was being so dammed arrogant. And the urge to fight something was strong. Vampires just weren't enough of a challenge these days. While she was still telling herself how stupid they were being, Duncan threw a weapon at her. Reflex took over and she caught the wooden practice blade before she realized exactly what it was.  
  
Duncan raised his own practice blade in a mock salute, and then, before Buffy had anytime to react, he was on the attack. The only thought she had, before the Slayer took over, was how badly it had all gone, the last time she'd been in a sword fight.  
  
Buffy didn't have anytime to reflect on the dark shadows from months past. Duncan moved too quick. Buffy's sword flashed upwards, in response to his attack. Her blade whipped forward, pressing her own return attack. The danced across the library, the only noise the dull clap of wooden blades, and the slight whisper of quick steps. They were well matched, Buffy's superior speed and strength were balanced by Duncan's instincts and skill, honed over hundreds of years of experience.  
  
Buffy backed up a step, and bumped into the library table. Damn, she should have paid better attention to where she was headed, she needed to concentrate, and pull of something pretty impressive, if she was going to win this stupid fight. With a deftness that would have done Giles proud (if he wasn't disappointed at his student engaging his old friend in a battle that wasn't exactly practice) Buffy thrust hard at her opponent's waist. Duncan flinched back out of her way, but her point wasn't to hit him. It gave her space and Buffy flipped herself neatly, upwards and back, onto the library table. Duncan looked at her with obvious surprise.  
  
"What's wrong," Buffy quipped, adding the largely absent verbal element to their sparring, "never faced a Slayer before?"  
  
His faced creased with anger, and he followed her up onto the table, minus the elegant back flip. He attacked swiftly, countless years experience coming into play. His sword, though wooden, seemed to sing as it flashed forward in a dizzying attack. Buffy, clearly the inferior in sword work, was forced backwards, towards the back of the library table.  
  
Buffy had a plan to get herself off the table and out of the reach of Duncan's sword. It was a good move really, it would serve it's purpose, and look appropriately spectacular. At least it would have if not for one small catch. The library table, being an actual table, was normally used for real work, not sword fighting. Xander's homework assignment for his marketing class ("The Rise and Fall of Donuts in Popular Culture") was therefore lying, quite innocently, on the table top. Unfortunately for Buffy, she happened to step right on it, just as she decided to lunge forward for a counter-attack. The slippery qualitites of paper on polished wood, combined with her momentum sent the Slayer tumbling downwards in a rather spectacular fall to the table's surface. The resultant impact sent her sword sliding towards Duncan, just out of her reach.  
  
Duncan smirked down at her, while she glared up at him. "What's wrong," he asked, "never faced someone who could actually use a sword before?"  
  
Buffy stayed where she was for a moment, back pressed against the railing of the upper section of the library. The room seemed to swirl around her. This was so familiar, so painful. This sword fight blurred with the last one. The railing behind her was like the stone wall of the mansion. The tall, dark man standing in front of her, the sword pointed at her. The taunting words, her own weapon just out of reach. It was all sickeningly familiar.  
  
Lost in her own world, Buffy didn't notice Duncan move away from her, putting his sword down on the table and moving towards the doors. Buffy knew what she had to do. She knew what her duty was. She had to save the world. She'd done it once, she could do it again. Quietly, so not to alert her opponent, Buffy picked up her sword and slipped off the table. The world swam around her, the only clear thing amid the haze was her opponent's back and the blade of her sword. It was stupid of him to turn his back on her. He, of all people, should know what she could do. She would kill him. End his existence quickly with the sword, while his back was turned, while he wouldn't feel the pain. She owed that at least to the man she loved, to her Angel.  
  
"You fought well," Duncan said, blithely unaware of death stalking him. His back was still turned to her, as he dug through the pockets of his coat, looking for car keys. "Next time watch your blocks on your left-hand side." Duncan felt he could afford to be generous, after all, he had won.  
  
Buffy focussed on the broad back of her target, a voice rose up from the mist, and swirled around her, but she ignored it, it would only distract her from her purpose. She was ready, she was going to do this, she had to do this. Slowly she raised the blade ready to strike. And then, when she was perfectly ready, when everything was balanced just right, she swung.  
  
Her swing had already started it's inevitable conclusion, when the library doors were pushed open. Giles and Willow, looking worried and immersed in deep conversation, walked through the door. It was Giles who first saw the bizarre tableau and called out, "Buffy!"  
  
Duncan, hand raised to greet Giles, was alerted by the call, and swung around. Instinct took over, and he swatted the blade out of Buffy's hand. Everyone froze. The library was painfully silent as Buffy's gaze cleared and she whispered in a tortured tone, "Angel?"  
  
Her pain seemed to sweep out to fill the room. Buffy looked around, and became suddenly, dreadfully, aware of what she had just been about to do. "Oh no." She took one look at the shocked faces around her, at the weapon lying on the floor, and then, before anyone else could stop her, she ran. She bolted out the door, brushing past Giles and Willow, down the hall, past where Oz, Cordelia and Xander were walking. She kept running, ignoring the voices calling after her, through the halls and out of the school. Her only thought was to get as far away from her past, as fast as she could.  
  
*********  
  
When Buffy stopped running, and started paying attention to her surroundings, she found herself across the street from the town bus depot. Not a good thing, she decided. Running away again shouldn't be an option. Yet still, the urge was there. Just slip out of town and away again into the unknown. She could do it again. Disappear, become one of the masses, normal, just like everyone else. Reality inserted itself, just as Buffy stepped off the curb. She couldn't do it. She couldn't put the people she loved through that kind of pain, not again. Giles hadn't said anything, but sometimes, when he thought she wouldn't notice, he'd look at her with those sad eyes. Like he expected her to bolt at any minute.  
  
With a weary sigh, Buffy turned away and started walking back the way she came. She was probably crazy, she decided. Attacking Duncan like that...really, what had she been thinking? That really was the problem, she hadn't. It was like her brain had taken a vacation, and her body, left with no one at the helm, had decided to do something irreparably stupid. She dreamed about that moment every time her eyes closed, the moment when she'd killed him. But, somehow those dreams had slipped across the veil that separated her night-time terrors from the relative sanity of her days. That wasn't good. What if it happened again? What if this time, she actually hurt something.  
  
She had to leave town.  
  
****************  
  
Duncan's hands shook as he listened to the explanations Buffy's friends and Giles gave him. Her story, God, so like his own. His hands were still shaking, that was strange. He'd lived through wars, epidemics, been killed more times then he could count, all in relative calm. But this brush so close with real death, by someone who he didn't precisely like, but certainly didn't think would try to kill him, this had his hands shaking. They'd stopped trying to explain to him, and had started arguing among themselves. The prophesy, the one that Buffy's friends had gone to pick up from Giles' house, revealed important information. Half the group seemed to want to wait, and find Buffy, before they went after the threat, while the other half was in favour of going after the creature itself, working under the assumption that, if there was trouble, Buffy would be there.  
  
Duncan didn't care. It was nearly time for him to move on anyways. He'd learned enough about fighting demons from Buffy that he was more than able to continue fighting on his own. His own talents, combined with knowledge from the books Rupert was giving him, would make him a formidable foe to demons everywhere. He was going to kill them. A lot of them. Duncan was perfectly prepared to spend the rest of his considerably long life killing the bastards that had turned his world upside down.  
  
Across the table Willow leaned over and put a hand on Xander's arm. Duncan smiled wryly, recognizing her attempt to calm her life-long friend. Willow noticed him watching and grinned back at him, admitting, in her own way, that her attempts were futile. She turned back to the argument and Duncan suddenly felt his insides constrict. Crap. He was beginning to care about these people. As much as he had ignored them over the past few weeks, he had, none the less, started to care about what happened to them. And now, he knew them. Knew that no matter how bitchy Cordelia got, you didn't tease her about her family. He knew that when Oz paused and sniffed the air something strange was coming. He knew that when Willow started falling asleep in the library you had to kick her out to make her go home. He knew that you didn't talk about fathers when Xander was around.  
  
He couldn't do it. He couldn't care about people again. It was too dangerous, he shouldn't be around them. Next thing you knew he'd be killing them all. Oh, maybe not through demon possession this time, but he could make a mistake. And that mistake could kill them all, just because they were stupid enough to trust him.  
  
He had to leave town.  
  
*********** 


	3. And So It Ends

Disclaimer in Chapter 1  
  
*********  
  
Buffy sat in the bus station staring at the wall. Her ticket to San Francisco was clutched tightly in one hand. Her mind was oddly calm now that she had made a decision. It was for the best.  
  
When someone sat down beside her she didn't immediately register who it was. Then, she didn't realize that he was there for his own reasons. She only spoke to him when she saw he held a ticket for himself.  
  
"I'm sorry I tried to kill you."  
  
Duncan just nodded. "It's alright, they explained."  
  
Buffy sat in silence, trying not to think of what "they" would say once they found out she was gone. "Guess we're both leaving town then."  
  
Duncan just nodded again. Or Buffy assumed he did, she was busy keeping her mind occupied by counting tiles on the far wall.  
  
Twenty minutes later Duncan shifted in his seat, "They found out about that prophecy."  
  
Casual, oh so painfully casual, Buffy responded, "Oh?"  
  
"The creature, some sort of lower hell spawn, is going to rise tonight outside the West-End Mini-Mall. Probably near the pet store."  
  
"Oh." Buffy tried to think of another word to use, but the functional part of her brain seemed to have stopped working.  
  
"I think they're going to go and try to stop it," Duncan's voice was flat and unemotional.  
  
"They should have help."  
  
"Guess that would be us."  
  
"We are all there is."  
  
"Anyway," Buffy said as they left the Station, "my bus left forty minutes ago."  
  
*********  
  
"Sunnydale Pets: We Love Your Creatures" was located at the far west end of the mini-mall. At half past eleven on a Tuesday, the entire complex was deserted. Buffy and Duncan arrived and immediately spread out, covering the parking lot and walkway, looking for any sign that all was not as it should be. They met up again in the handicapped parking zone in front of the store. Duncan shook his head, indicating that he'd seen nothing, Buffy's Spidey sense had come up empty as well. She was about to suggest that they had the wrong place, when the fire hydrant exploded.  
  
They scrambled backwards, away from the store, taking cover behind a concrete planter. "Strategic Retreat" as Xander usually called it. Where once the fire hydrant had stood, there was now a forty foot column of water. With a head and arms. The water thing roared and lashed an impossibly long arm of water towards the corner of the building, shattering glass and concrete. Buffy looked over at Duncan, who had his sword out and was clearly assessing the creature.  
  
"I don't think that sword is going to do much good."  
  
"Do you have a better idea?" he asked, pointing at the thing.  
  
"Ask it nicely to go home?"  
  
She grinned at his look of disgust, but was spared a verbal retort, because then the thing noticed their existence. And decided to do it's best to end it.  
  
*******  
  
It was Willow who found them later, sitting side-by-side in the wreckage of what had once been a rather large mini-mall. She was trailed by Giles and Xander, both armed to the teeth, and looking slightly disappointed that the fight was over without them. Buffy was exhausted, she could barely keep her eyes open, and was sitting upright only because she was leaning against Duncan's shoulder.  
  
"Are you alright?" Willow sounded anguished, so Buffy managed to mumble out an affirmative. She felt like she had been run through a forty foot waterspout. Oh wait, she had.  
  
So Buffy sat there, feeling rather immovable, while Duncan filled them in on what had happened. Buffy ignored the story and the rabbit that was currently sniffing her left boot. Apparently the animals were enjoying their new-found freedom. Duncan's tale wound to an end, and someone suggested getting out of there before the police showed up. The comment was met with general laughter, but provided the impetus needed. Minutes later Buffy was firmly ensconced in the back seat of Giles' car, wedged between Willow and Xander, who wasn't complaining about the wet state of her clothes. In a brief moment of clarity, Buffy felt perfectly safe and content. How could she ever have even thought of leaving such friends?  
  
Duncan was talking animatedly to Giles, hands gesturing, explaining something. And Buffy smiled sleepily when she heard him tell Giles he was going to stay around for a bit, and he'd have to make sure to leave them his address when he left. This was good, having friends, people who held on to you, when things weren't going so good. So, Buffy Summers, Slayer Extraordinaire, scrunched down further in her seat, and drifted off to sleep, knowing they would look out for her while she rested, because they always did.  
  
*****  
  
Alright people, this is pretty much the end. I need to do some minor editing, and cuz I'm posting this far to late, I know I'll need to tweak the last chapter. But that really isn't my main goal right now. So now I can go work on other stuff, cuz I promised myself no more than one unfinished fic posted at a time.  
  
Drop by my LJ (linked as my website) or review and let me know what you think. I have tough skin!  
  
Toodles. 


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